Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Good Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the steak
Remove all bone and most fat from the steak.
Place the steak on a heavy wooden block and pound it to ½ inch thick.
Cook
Use a large double bread toaster as a gridiron, adjusting it to the desired thickness.
Place the toaster over very hot coals for about 10 seconds to seal the surface.
Turn the steak and cook the other side until slightly browned.
Turn the first side and cook it the same way, ensuring the steak is juicy and slightly red in the center.
Serve
Remove the steak to a hot platter, season with salt and pepper, and place small pieces of butter on top.
Put the platter in the oven just long enough to melt the butter before serving.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Porterhouse steak
- Provides the main meat, whose thickness and fat content shape juiciness and browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that melts over the hot steak for flavour and moisture.
The step that matters
Cook the first side over very hot coals for about 10 seconds to seal the surface. A brief blast of intense heat browns and seals the surface, helping retain juices inside. Too little heat or too long a sear can leave the centre overcooked or the surface dry, so timing and heat matter.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More porterhouse steak recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.